Notes on birds of Colombia and description of a new subspecies of Forpus conspicillatus

Abstract

In this paper some new records and miscellaneous notes dealing with 14 species of birds are included. The sooty grassequit (Tiare fuliginosa) is recorded for the first time from Colombia.. The cisandean populations of the spectacled parrotlet (Forpus conspicillatus (lafresnaye)) are formally described as a new subspecies named F. c. metae (type locality: Laguna de Tanané, about 25 km. SE from Villavicencio, Dept. of Meta, Colombia, alt. 325 m.; holotype in the ornithological collection of the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá D. E.). Males of metae are si milar in size to those of. F. c. conspicillatus, but its green shades are somewhat more yellowish and brighter, particulary in the front, lores, malar and genal areas, and addi-tionally the blue circumorbital ring is reduced to the posterior half of the superciliary stripe. Males of metae differ from of F. c. cumeae (Chapman) at least by signi ficant smaller wings and tails. No diagnostic characters can be detected between the females of the three subspecies, neither any sexual dimorphism in size is evident, al though chromatic sexual differences are obvious. Statistical treatment is given for cach measurements used for comparisons. The three recognized subspecies are sharply isolated inter se by sharp altitudinal barriers, so that no contact zones are known between these taxa. F. c. metae has a wide altitudinal tolerance range from the gallery forests of the plains of the Meta River drainage to the subtropical forest belt of the eastern slope of the Eastern Andes of Colombia, but no significant size or color distinctions were observed between the opposite places, although an estimated difference of 8.6° C. of the average temperature for such places is involved.